Instead of Christmas knitting

What I do when I have a line up of Christmas knitting to get done....

I carry around all the projects that I am supposed to work on in my knitting bag, because somehow I believe that that counts as working on them :P

At the top of the knitting bag is this project...a project that is NOT on my Christmas to do list! It is going to be a wrap. I am going to add on about 2 times what you see here so it will be like wrapping myself up in a blanket, but small enough that it won't look like I am walking around in an afghan. As you can see I have choosen the brightest, wildest color combos that I could. I love bright colors! The pattern is a breeze!

I must start working on the Christmas knitting however...maybe I should take this out of my knitting bag so I am not enticed to work on it!!! But it's always..."just one more row, then I will working on Christmas knitting"..."ok, just one more row, ok, just one more, ok, just a half a row and then I must start the Christmas knitting"

Procrastinator?! Who Me?!

HGTV

This is what happens when you watch HGTV while you are putting labels on skeins of yarn!

You get the crazy idea to start making the house you have lived in for the last two years look like a home...and try to make it a home as gorgeous as those on HGTV and you figure that it will take about two hours...just like on HGTVSo you pull out all the furniture and start painting...

This project isn't done yet :P One wall is painted and the furniture is back in the room, the complimentary color still waiting to go on the walls.

But when it's done it's going to be GREAT! Came up with awesome space saving ideas for the bedroom storage (a california king, dressers, end tables and a closet barely big enough for a childs wardrobe in a room that is 10' x 15' at best!)

Since that project took a little longer than expected, I moved on to an instant gratification project....

Pictures on a wall!

Mind you, the only pictures up are on this hallway wall...but still when people stop by they notice and say, "WOW, kinda looks like a home now"

It only took two and a half years to do and inspiration from HGTV....

but now that the ball is rolling, we will see what I come up with next

(or what the bedroom looks like when I get around to finishing it)

Past Lucky Lurker Packages

As I sit here with the website, making sure there are no spontaneous blimps as people sign up for the next round of the Lucky Lurker Club, I realized that I can now safely share the photos of the last round of the Lucky Lurker packages!

This was September's Lucky Lurker package featuring a smocking stitch that I absolutely fell in love with. The stitch is one that looks so fancy, but is such a cinche to do!!! This sock knit up so fast! I sooooooo wanted to add a little pom-pom on the cuff for a real 'Snow Bunny' feature, but I restrained myself :)

Next up was the October Lattice Pattern. It featured the 'Skinny' Duet Sock Yarn, so I new I wanted something with a bit of a lace look to really show off what the yarn could do, but I didn't want to have it too 'holey' with the chill of winter around the corner. The stitch is so simple...three little stitches make this cool lattice look!

Then, there was the November Sock...OMG, I love love love this one! It was actually my first knee high sock! I had, until this sock, only used the XXL for men's socks. When it was time to create the design for November, I really wanted to do something pretty and delicate, but still autumn feeling-a bit of a switch from my usual visions that I have for the XXL when I am knitting for Mr Ken :P And, once again, the pattern is so easy to do but looks so delicate!

So there is the last three months of Lucky Lurker Club....and I have to tell ya, it is soooooooo hard not to share the progress as I work on these designs! From cast on to finish there is lots of starts and start overs, lots of frogging and lots of stich pattern books flipped through. And all the ideas must be top secret! What's even more difficult in some of the Lucky Lurker members are in my weekly knitting group and great friends I see often, so I have to hide all evidence at all times! I have become a very 'stealth' knitter :)

Today is the DAY!

Today is the day...the day to try to grab a spot in the

next round of Lucky Lurker Sock Yarn of the Month Club.

I know there were a few of you that weren't able to get a spot last time, and because my two hands can only make so much, the space is still very limited.

Sign ups begin at 9am sharp! That is only just a few minutes away!!!

Happy lurking and hope to see you in this round of the Lucky Lurker Club!!!

I've been knitting! -for MYSELF!!

This has not been a very common occurance lately. When I am not dyeing yarn, I am designing the patterns for the upcoming Lucky Lurker package for that month. Obviously, I don't share those photos while I am working on them because that would totally spoil the suprise.

Well, round 1 of The Lucky Lurker Yarn of the Month club is coming to a close (some international folks still waiting for theirs to arrive so I don't want to post any pictures of the pattern) and there is no Yarn of the Month for December so I am taking the time to knit a little something for ME! It out of the new Middy Duet Sock Yarn. It's called Mod Chic! The pattern is tough to see because the flash totally blinds out the details if I get any closer.

Karma didn't want to be left out of the picture fun when she saw Guppy getting in on the action,

So here is a picture of sweet Karma too...she (not so secretly) wishes she was a little lap dog, just like Guppy. (Yes, she does try to climb up on my lap when I sit to knit and Yes, she is VERY heavy) :)

Have you heard of partylite?

Well, I had heard of it, but beyond that I was pretty much out of the loop.

A friend of ours who had lost her job due to the rapid fall out in the real estate world, decided she was going to venture out into the world of selp-employment through partylite.

Always eager to help any one follow a dream I agreed to host her first partylite party.

Low and behold everyone who came already knew all about this stuff and I was the newby to it.

It turns out that I have lived all these years and never knew that I needed so many candles :) This photo is the tip of the iceberg (one of the joys of being a host is you get lots of free stuff). I now have sconces, votives, and pillars galore. I have tea-lights and room scents and body butter too!

Not being much of a knick knack person to begin with the idea of having candles all around wasn't one I was diving right into, but now with a few candles here and there, I have to say there is something very warm and inviting about the glow of a candle. And they smell good too!!!

Moody Blues?

As I was skeining up the lastest batches of yarn, I glanced down and thought "Hmmm, I think this cold dark weather is impacting me more than I realized." With the days so much shorter (it's dark by 5pm) and much much colder (40 is now described as a 'warm day' by the weather reporters), it's easy to tell winter is right around the corner. Being a northwest original, I am quite used to the rain, dark and cold...but I had no idea that it actually would inspire my colorway choices! Blues and deep purples, it makes chilly winter look so pretty. :)

Be patient, I have to get them labeled before I can get them on the website! :)

Where's the Yarn?!

If you are a regular checker of my website by now you have to be wondering, 'where the heck is some new yarn!?'

Well I am, by no stretch of the imagination, a techy and the place where I load the pictures (like my technical terms?) won't let me load the pictures! So I have beautiful new Middy's to add, and CAN'T!!!!!! UUuuuuggghhh! But I am working on getting that fixed by someone far more skilled than me at that stuff!

But, while I am admitting how completely inept I am at techy stuff, I will share another experience to demonstrate this.

I have an MP3 player (I miss the days of a mixed tape in a walkman). Well, I really don't know how to work the dang thing. I had been loading songs and books and stuff, but I don't know how to create files so everything is one big ole long list of all the stuff I had added. So when I added something new I had to search through the big ole long list to find the new thing and transfer it to the MP3 player. Well, I got a little tired of this whole process and decided to 'clean it up'. Thinking that since I had already put that book into my books playlist and that song into my 'song playlist' I assumed that if I deleted it from the main bunch of downloads it would remain in my playlists. So I highlighted everything, EVERYTHING, and hit delete. Yeah.....it turns out when you delete it from that original list it is gone from every playlist it was in. I ended up with a completely blank MP3 player!!!!

Now I have to figure out how to load songs all over again!

So you see, I miss the days of a mixed tape and a walkman and I now understand how my parents must have felt when VCRs came out and they had to have us kids set the clock on the dang thing......

Maybe I need my 11 year old neice come over and help me out with all this techy stuff!!! :)

My Birthday...

Since my days go by at about 100 miles per hour, when ever I say to myself 'I will do that tomorrow' somehow 10 tomorrows pass in a blink of an eye.
Well, one such thing was to share a few photos from my birthday, which was now almost two weeks ago!

Anyways...Ken had very sneakily managed to get a hold of family and friends and got them all to suprise me when we arrived at this restaurant. I thought Ken and I were just going out to dinner, but when we arrived and I looked up I recognized LOTS of faces!!! It was a little tough to get everyone's attention for this photo (you can't even see the folks behind the balloons!), but you get the idea about what a wonderful suprise it was.

And even more to my suprise, Mr Ken found my Amazon.com wish list (this is a really big shocker) and got me a knitting book, movies I love and a new CD....the adorable little camera I received from him and the suprise dinner and I LOVE IT!!!! My old camera was pooping out, but I still loved it, then came this one! Same brand, same style, but half the size and a fraction of the weight!!!! Get ready for some great yarn photos! :)

I also wanted to point out one of the movies above was from Joanne (a super great knitting friend)...It is the horror movie 'Black Sheep'. Now since my birthday falls right before Halloween, the timing couldn't have been better :)

Have your seen other Duet Socks around???

Here is a photo of September's Sock Yarn of the Month that the Lucky Lurkers recieved.

And this is an up close and personal shot of October's Sock Yarn of the Month.

Even as much as I am ABSOLUTELY DYeING (no pun intended) to show you

November's Sock Yarn of the Month and pattern...that will remain a secret.

You also gotta check out these very talented knitters' Duet Socks!
Knitikas
Knitalicious

I would love to link your Duet Socks too! Just drop me an e-mail or post a comment here for others to check out!